


Shining Blue

by chillychocolate



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Whump, Langst, Voltron, uhh what other tags should i put idk this is my first fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2019-09-07 08:27:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16850599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chillychocolate/pseuds/chillychocolate
Summary: Allura discovers that the paladins can use and weaponize quintessence, but it turns out one (blue) paladin is... a little too good at it. Due to his self-sacrificing nature, he ends up captured, and a certain druid is determined to utilise his power, even if it breaks him. Langst ahoy!!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first fic, so I'm really excited and I also have a lot of other stuff planned out so that's FUN
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy my fic :)  
> (and please leave a kudos or a comment if you're feeling particularly *festive* uwu)

Lance was… actually feeling okay recently. Of course, he wasn’t completely perfect; ever since he could remember his head was full to the brim with assignments and due dates, and now with the unrelenting pressure of the war and knowing countless innocent lives depended on him making the right decisions when the time called for it? Yeah, he could say that was a little much.

He had always felt like pressure and an anticipation for the unknown had been like an anchor tied to his brain, dragging him down, leaving him unable to relax. And it wasn’t just his brain nowadays; the screaming, blood-red alarms could abruptly awaken right now, or when he was sleeping, calling them to a frenzy of chaos, paranoia and murder.

His anxieties had only worsened with the thoughts that he wasn’t as capable as the rest of the team. He wasn’t smart, couldn’t contribute anything in the way of repairs, was frankly awful at close-range fighting, and could never lead the team. The rational part of his brain told him that he was a sort of jack-of-all-trades (the multiple forms of his bayard proved that) and a specialist in sharpshooting. The other part of his brain whispered that they only had him as sharpshooter so they could tuck him away from the conflict, out of sight and out of the line of fire, where he couldn’t make any potentially fatal mistakes. The rest of the team could handle themselves anyway. 

He only listened to the whispers sometimes. He knew he was good at sharpshooting. He didn’t know what else, though.

***

Lance ambled to the training room. His strides were long and relaxed, but his grin was hurting his cheeks, and his shoulders were hunched, and his head drooped downwards. He was normally good at concealing his emotions, but the memories of the last training session lingered in his mind, the embarrassment dripping from his brain with a consistent monotony (it had been close-combat. Against Keith. Enough said). 

He shook his head like a dog trying to get dry, and plastering on a smile, opened the doors. The interior of the room opened out before him for a second. Towards the far-left corner of the room, Pidge and Hunk huddled together, probably talking about some advanced piece of alien technology that he didn’t understand, if Pidge’s rapid-fire hand gestures were anything to go by (which Lance knew that they were. He may not understand space tech, but he understood people and knew that Pidge often expressed emotion non-verbally. Must be the Italian in her). 

Shiro, Allura and Coran stood in the centre, almost definitely discussing something grown-up and boring – space politics, algebra, taxes? Lance dreaded to think.

In the centre of the wall on the right, Keith leaned with one foot on the wall, polishing his knife (what a weirdo). Still, Lance didn’t like to see him all alone and was going to go over to him, be friendly, maybe a bit irritating, the usual, when Shiro called his name. 

“Lance! We were just waiting for you. Everyone gather round in the middle and we can get started.”

Lance gravitated toward Shiro, along with Pidge, who smiled at him, Hunk, who waved, and Keith, who hovered round the outskirts of the group. Lance frowned. 

“Today we’ll be trying something really new: manipulating quintessence!” Allura beamed, she was obviously excited. 

The other paladins didn’t seem to express the same excitement.

“Um, isn’t that what Haggar does?” Pidge inquired.

Hunk frowned. “Yeah, to do all her evil biddings. She’s like, a really bad person. Like, really bad. Shouldn’t we stay away from all her dark magicky stuff?” 

“It’s true that Haggar uses quintessence for evil, but quintessence isn’t an evil substance in itself.” Allura explained. 

Lance thought for a second. “It’s like that riddle about a knife, like it turns evil if you stab someone a bunch of times,” He mimed stabbing someone enthusiastically (hey, he’s a theatre kid, he has a flair for the dramatics), “but it depends what you use it for because it isn’t an evil object if you just use it to cut cheese or something.”

“I guess you’ve got the basic principle,” Shiro nodded.

“So, as I was saying, quintessence isn’t inherently bad. It all depends on the user and purpose. Haggar uses quintessence to corrupt, however if you learnt to utilise it in a way to benefit yourselves and your purpose, it could be very useful indeed in the fight against the galra.” Allura explained.

“Basically like magic!” Lance practically squealed.

“Alright, calm down.” Keith muttered under his breath.

Lance gasped dramatically and turned quickly to face Keith. “Well I’ll have you know that magic is cool stuff! Have you never watched Harry Potter?”

Pidge cleared her throat loudly. “I think you mean ‘Have you never read Harry Potter?’”

“What’s Harry Potter?” 

Lance and Pidge both locked eyes with each other in horror as they inhaled deeply. They both screamed at him simultaneously.

“BOI”

“Alright, alright, calm down.” Shiro deflated the situation. “Quintessence, remember? Saving lives in space? Ring a bell?”

“Fine...” Both offended Potterheads muttered, but as soon as Shiro started talking again, Lance mouthed the words “Sassy Space Daddy” to Pidge, who tried her hardest not to laugh whilst also sending him the mother of all death glares.

“Everyone has a store of quintessence inside of them. It is closely linked to your personality, feelings, moods and everything that makes you unique. Normal biotic creatures can’t use this as a weapon or tool, but as paladins your quintessence pool is much larger than most, so you can connect with your lions. Therefore, I hope that with intense training and extensive persistence, you can eventually be continually armed on the battlefield, whether you have your bayards on you or not.” Allura proudly explained.

Pidge was now hooked. “What could we potentially use the quintessence for? We already know a weapon but what else is possible? What form can it take? Could it- “

Allura cut her off, “Pidge, much about this is unknown. This will be the first time this has ever been attempted, aside from Haggar’s experiments, and she isn’t exactly about to give us all the details. Our best guesses are that with enough concentration, your quintessence, or part of it, could become a semi-tangible form. Whether this may be a weapon of some sort, a shield, or a store of knowledge is unknown, but we have reason to think it will depend on the quintessence of the user.”

Pidges glasses shone. Shiro cut her off before she could go on another rant.

“Shall we have a go, Princess?”

She smiled. “Of course.”

***

They all sat in a circle, cross-legged with their palms on the floor.

Allura explained what they were going to do: “You will each take turns in trying to gather your quintessence together to manipulate it. After persistent practice and training, you will be able to gather it in front of you so it’s visible to everyone, but you will not be capable of that now. I shall use my Altean magic to look at your quintessence to see if you are having any effect on it, but no-one else should be able to see it. Is it clear?”

“Crystal, Princess,” confirmed Shiro. “I’ll go first, then we’ll go around the circle. Everyone okay?”

Lance suppressed a groan. He was sitting directly to the right of Shiro, so would be going last. Nevertheless, he nodded like everyone else.

Shiro closed his eyes and relaxed his posture, whilst Allura sat in the middle of the circle. She stared at him without blinking (which Lance found quite creepy) and then nodded when he opened his eyes. “Your attempt is quite admirable. I can see the bonds that hold the quintessence together tightening and starting to draw it together,” She remarked. “Much better than we should expect from a beginner. Well done, Shiro.”

He smiled warmly at her then turned to his left to Pidge, who was buzzing to have a go. She was also better than average, although not as in control of Shiro, but Allura’s nice comments left her blushing.

Next was Hunk, who performed around expectations, and Keith, who could barely get his to budge. Allura commented that he ‘needed to know how to let go’ and ‘open up to an external force’. Then it was Lance’s turn.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused all his mind on the energy inside of him. The strands of short-term memories, the faint tendrils of watered-down emotion… Lance felt them slide through his fingers like liquid or silky sand. He sucked on his tongue in concentration and… 

Nothing happened. He tried again, but similarly the attempt ended in vain. He opened his eyes.

The rest of the team were looking at him. He was about to apologise, or cry, or both, when he saw Keith’s expectant face, like he actually believed he could do something.

He was lit by a spark of newfound determination, and scrunched his eyes shut. He reached down deep inside himself, weaving through emotions and entangling himself in the centre of his soul. He grabbed this internal ball of wool and held on, digging his fingernails into the crevices and gaps. Dragging it to the surface was like swimming to the surface after diving into the sea. Distorted and fractured voices that sounded like Pidge and Hunk gradually came into focus, until he stuck his head out of the water and listened to the end of their garbled sentences.

“-o that?”

“-the quiznack!?”

“-ance!”

 

“LANCE!”

 

That final desperate call of his name shocked him into clarity. But something was wrong; everything was a little too clear, he could hear each breath taken by the huddle of concerned friends around him. Each heartbeat was distinct in his head, a sickening cacophony of pulsations from seven people carving phosphenes into his frantic thoughts. He opened his eyes to find he was surrounded by a blue galaxy, the stars blinding and the colour too neon to bear. The galaxy floated in front of his eyes and wound its way through his body, grasping both at his soul and this new hostile state of environment. 

Past the mesh of intergalactic bodies, he could make out six pairs of eyes, stretched unnaturally wide and glowing in red, black, green, yellow, pink and orange. In terms of the rest of their forms, he couldn’t make out their exact figures, but images of their skeletal and nervous systems were engrained into his mind, making him nauseous.

Finally, his soul got overwhelmed by the emotion it was drowned in. He could sense black concern, green confusion, yellow worry, pink doubt, orange alarm and a red flame that burned bright but he couldn’t seem to get access to.

All of this was too much. This emotional and sensory overload was overwhelming and tortuous. Where did he look? What could he hear? How could he feel until his heart was fit to burst?

What felt like an electrical shock set his veins aflame, and a jolt of pain locked his limbs. He could feel his lids being pulled downwards, until he was torn apart by the darkness that embraced his increasingly-limp body.

Goodnight.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance wakes up but there's something wrong... dun dun DUN

He awoke abruptly to the feeling of burning. He could feel his body arching from a reclining position to hunched over his knees, but the rest of his senses were dulled. He couldn’t even see.

As he curled up further and shook violently, sobs emerging from the sheer amount of pain he was in, he could vaguely remember a hand rubbing his back.

The he blacked out once more.

***

A sudden inhale marked waking up again. His limbs still hurt, but he no longer instantly passed out from the pain. Rapidly sitting up in panic, his breaths grew quicker and shakier as his lungs constricted. A wave of pain made him scrunch his eyes shut and bite his tongue. Confusion and an unawareness of his surroundings clung to his chest, piercing his lungs as he started hyperventilating.

“-nce?”

Through a hazy veil of pain he heard a small, questioning voice and his breath hitched.

“Lance can you hear me?” 

Still just as quiet, the voice softly asked again.

Tentative hands carefully rubbed circles on the top of his back, grounding him from the chaos of distorted information his brain was piecing together.

Lance slowly released the tension in his eyelids, peering through the crack made in them. In front of him sat Keith, or a blurry image of him anyway. He would recognise that mullet anywhere. Keith sat cross-legged on the bed by Lance’s legs, his arm outstretched reaching for behind his back, fingers dancing at his shoulders. 

“K-Keith?” Lance breathed. 

Keith gasped and hopefully gazed up at him.

“Keith! I- I – wh?” Lance stuttered before his throat tightened. Oh no. Keith read the sign and swiftly brought a bucket up to Lance’s chin as he emptied his stomach into it, still rubbing his back as a sign of comfort and support.

When he had finished, Keith set the bucket on the floor and held Lance’s forearms as he looked into his eyes. Keith’s eyes were grey, but not hard like steel. They were like smudged graphite or watercolour rainclouds, holding within the iris a myriad of purple stars.

“Lance,” He said urgently, still staring at him. “Are you ok? Does it hurt? What happened? Do- “

He cut himself off as Lance winced and bit his lip, tears forming in his eyes.

“I- I don’t kno- know, Keith, it just a- all hurts so m- “

Again, Lance doubled over with the influence of the pain. Keith snuck his arms under his armpits and folded them around his body, pulling Lance’s mostly unresponsive body into an embrace. 

“Lance,” He repeated. “Lance… “

Lance shook into his shoulders, hiccups jolting his irregular breathing. Keith looked at a loss for words.

“Lance,” He whispered again. “It’s- it’s ok. You can go to sleep.”

The blue paladin nestled his head into Keith’s neck as he bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut, and could feel himself drifting off for the third time in however many days.

“Sleep.” Keith’s voice cracked. “You are safe.”

***

Hunk walked into the infirmary to see a teary-eyed Keith wrapped around an unconscious Lance.

“Hey,” He said gently, not wanting to startle Keith nor wake Lance up. 

“Hey.” The red paladin rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his palm before ever so slightly inclining his head to see Hunk.

“Did Lance wake up?”

“Yes.” Keith’s eyes flicker downward.

“How did it go? How was he?”

“He was… bad.”

Hunk felt a surge of worry. “How bad?”

“He was in so much pain he could barely think straight. He could barely form one cohesive sentence, and all he said was how much it hurt. He was crying and doubling over from what seemed like waves of pain. He also threw up once.” Keith vaguely gestured towards the bucket on the floor.

“That’s not good.”

“No.”

“What happened? What did you do?”

“I asked him if he was ok, he could barely answer. He was hurt so I rubbed his back then I hugged him. I tried to talk to him to comfort him, but I was pretty useless really. I’m not made for this stuff.” Keith stared at Hunk.

“Hey, don’t talk like that,” Hunk said kindly. “You gave Lance exactly what he needed: comfort and familiarity.”

Keith snorted. “Me? Being all touchy-feely? Not exactly familiar.” 

As Hunk was about to respond, Shiro, Coran and Allura entered the infirmary, followed by Pidge. 

“Everything ok?” Asked Shiro. Hunk told everyone the information Keith had given him, and one-by-one, their gazes all shifted to the figure draped limply across Keith’s shoulders.

“Poor Lance,” Pidge sniffed, and moved to sit on the bed next to Keith, gently stroking Lance’s hair.

“Princess, why is he like this?” Keith asked.

Allura frowned. “I’m not sure, although I have a theory. I’ll go more in-depth once Lance has recovered, but I primarily believe that Lance was too good at gathering his quintessence. He unlocked many potentials with his extraordinary power that his body was just not ready to deal with. I suppose I should have been more careful, although this is a most unique and puzzling case.”

“Don’t blame yourself Princess, there is no way we could have predicted this. Number three is a case most unusual. Right now, we should be focused on bringing him back to full health.” Coran inputted, trying for a cheery tone to lighten the mood but just falling short. Everyone knew he had a soft spot for Lance.

“I suppose you are right Coran. Continue the shifts we have in place and alert the rest of the team as soon as you can if Lance wakes again, Paladins. Let’s help him as much as we can!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop whoop! I should probably space all the chapters out and post at regular intervals but I'll just post all the ones that I've written right now because I can!
> 
> And don't worry if you don't like kinda weak Lance being pitied by the team (even though that poor boy has a very good excuse), because I much prefer BAMF!lance over chapters like this - but never fear, it serves a purpose, because it provides a contrast in behaviour from the start and the end of the fic because that's what writers DO!! (probably idk). Also I've got to admit that I actually really enjoyed writing the keith bit
> 
> Please be *festive* and drop a comment otherwise it's just awkward :D


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance wakes up again - a short chapter to explain things before the real story starts to build

The third time Lance woke up was during Shiro’s shift. Shiro had just been sitting there, his forearms resting on his knees, staring at Lance’s sleeping body, deep in thought. Lance groaned quietly and Shiro was by his side in less than a second, crouched down at the side of the bed. 

“Lance?” He half-whispered.

Lance blinked a couple of times before turning his gaze to Shiro.

“Shiro? I- “

His sentence died as he tried to sit up and nearly fell sideways, before Shiro’s human arm caught him.

“Woah, careful there,” Shiro nervously laughed. “Lance, how do you feel?”

“Tired,” The smaller boy mumbled, rubbing at his eyes. “And dizzy. And I have a headache. But much better than last time though.”

“You remember that?”

“Yeah? Keith was there… ohmygod we had another bonding moment. On second thoughts, don’t tell him I remembered it.”

“But he cradled you in his arms!”

“Shirooo!” Lance groaned, covering his face in his hands and flopping down on the bed. 

“Okay, okay,” Shiro chuckled. They sat together in comfortable silence before Lance asked out of the blue, “Shiro, can I go to my own room?”

Shiro hesitated, “I’m not sure that’s the best idea, Lance.”

“But why not?” Lance whined. “I’m fine, I’ve only got a headache. I’ve basically just been sleeping for however long I’ve been here.”

“Lance, you were in a coma.”

Lances head whipped round to face him, which made him lose his balance and fall onto his pillow, wincing. Shiro gave him a look that said ‘Just a headache, my ass’ but Lance was more focused on the new piece of information that had literally just knocked him flat.

“A coma?! How long was I out for?”

“Six days. You woke up thrice. Lance, you were really bad. Your brain was close to shutting down. If it wasn’t for Altean technology and Allura’s magic…” He didn’t need to finish the sentence.

Lance was left spluttering. “Six days? How did I- “

   
Shiro continued, “We fed you at the start with the Altean equivalent of an IV drip. I don’t know how it works, but that first day was enough to supply you with the rest of the nutrients and other things that your body needs.”

“Still basically sleeping…” Lance pouted.

“It was far from it. Even without nerve readings showing us your sensory overload it was obvious you were in agony. The first time you woke up you couldn’t even speak. We have reason to believe you couldn’t smell, hear or see us either, you could just feel how much pain you were in. Don’t try to downplay what you go through.”

“Us?” Lance repeated.

“The team was there.”

Lance could feel his cheeks colour in shame.

“None of that.” Shiro said sternly. “The team don’t think any differently of you, they’re just worried. I’m supposed to call them in as soon as you wake up, but if you don’t want them all crowded round you right now…”

Lance shook his head. He felt exhausted. “I just want to go to my room, Shiro. I don’t like the infirmary, it reminds the of the hospital.” He murmured. 

“I’ll call Coran in,” Shiro suggested. “And if he deems you fit, I’ll take you to your room. Is that ok?”

Lance sleepily nodded his head. Shiro spoke into his communicator and within minutes Coran entered.

“Hello there, Number three, feeling better?”

Lance nodded. Coran turned to Shiro, who told him about Lance’s condition and their agreement. 

“Okey dokey, Number three. I’ll need you to take this pill for me. I believe it is extremely similar to what you Paladins call ‘aspirin’?” 

Lance dutifully took the pill, lying still whilst Coran checked the scanners. The room grew darker and darker, and his lids heavier and heavier, until he could feel sleep practically clutching at his arms, his hair, his head, trying to pull him under. 

Finally, he relaxed, and was submerged by slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just got really excited because this fic has 3 kudos and 17 hits... I feel like that's really sad
> 
> Anyway I'm glad we have this chapter out of the way because I want to get to the T o r t u r e *laughs maniacally*
> 
>  
> 
> Be *festive*, make me excited, leave a comment! :D (*whispers* pplleeaassee)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter to explain things - I actually really like my ideas for the uses of quintessence so that's Coolio  
> Team bonding!!

Again, Lance awoke. This last week seemed to have a cyclical nature about it. He would fall asleep (or unconscious), wake up, be in pain, fall asleep, wake up, be in pain, and etcetera, etcetera. However, as he regained consciousness, he felt… normal. In fact, better than normal. His head felt clear and free of worry or doubt. His limbs felt revitalised and loose. Wow, that Altean aspirin could really work wonders. He would never have guessed that just yesterday he had been in a coma. 

He opened his eyes and found himself in his room. He grinned widely. Yes! He was all better. He climbed out of bed, dressed himself and opened his door. He couldn’t wait to see Pidge and Hunk again, he bet they were worried sick. He felt a twinge of guilt for not wanting to see them yesterday, but shook his head. He had just emerged the other side of a week of pain. He could be forgiven.

Feeling good, he started to walk down the hallway but faltered. Where would the team be? He didn’t know what time of the day it was, it could be the middle of the night. Someone had taken his alarm away so it didn’t wake him prematurely, but now he didn’t have any way of telling the time. 

He shrugged and walked towards the lounge. They spent the most time in there, so it was a logical assumption. Lo and behold, when he approached the doors he heard the tell-tale signs of chatter and friendly bickering. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and walked into the room as everyone’s heads immediately swivelled towards him.

“Lance!” Pidge cheered, and both she and Hunk leapt from the sofa they were reclining on to tackle him in a hug. Shiro rose and approached with Allura and Coran.

“I’m glad to see you feeling better,” Shiro said warmly.

“As am I,” Allura supplied whilst Coran cheered “Number three!” and joyfully joined the hug.

Lastly, Keith walked up to him. “It’s good that you’re ok now,” he muttered, looking at the ground and rubbing his arm.

“Yeah, thank for taking care of me!” Lance winked at Keith, whose cheeks reddened but he seemed to relax slightly.

Once the four-person hug had disbanded, the paladins and Alteans draped themselves across the sofas in a jigsaw puzzle of limbs, Lance right in the middle.

“Do you remember what happened?” asked Pidge, fixing the glasses on her face.

“Umm… sort of?” Lance replied. “I remember I couldn’t do the quintessence thing at all the first time, then I tried harder and I could. I don’t really know how I did it, though.”

“What did it feel like?” Shiro curiously inquired.

“Really weird. It was like I reached and gathered all of my quintessence together and pulled it to the surface. I couldn’t really hear anything whilst I was doing it, but when I finished it was like my senses were amplified. I could hear everyone’s breaths and heartbeats, and I could see really clearly. You all looked like skeletons or something and you had different coloured eyes. Then I could feel everyone’s emotions, and I passed out. That’s about it.”

“Interesting…” muttered Allura. “Quintessence regulates nearly all of the body’s functions, including how you experience different things and what you think of them. All of the excess quintessence it suddenly had to deal with caused your brain to suffer a sensory overload. You passed out due to that but remained in such an ill state because your quintessence levels dropped again shortly after. The sudden changes in quintessence meant your body required recovery time to recharge, so to speak.”

Lance thought for a second, processing this information. “So that blue galaxy was my quintessence?”

“Dude, that looked so cool! Your eyes were glowing blue and everything!” Hunk exclaimed.

“Wait, really?” Lance yelped.

“It was the colour of your quintessence. The different coloured eyes you saw were the colours of each of our quintessence.” Explained Allura.

“So everyone has different coloured quintessence?” Pidge inquired. “What do the different colours mean?”

“Well obviously some colours hold different connotations. Yours are closely linked to your lions. The colours can change, but mostly stay the same throughout your life, and may sway the forms your quintessence could take. For example, green represents inquisitive behaviour and a hunger for knowledge, so we have reason to believe Pidge’s quintessence could translate into a store of data or a second memory bank.”

“That is awesome.” Pidge remarked, pushing her glasses up her nose with a grin.

“Woah, what could mine be?” Lance gasped.

Allura thought for a second, “Blue connotates selflessness and adaptability. So honestly, we don’t know what form yours could take, but based on how successful your first attempt was and the multiple versions of your bayard, I think you could produce more than one.”

“I win, my dear Pidgy,” Lance smirked down on her whilst she acted mock-offended.

“Hang on, Lance isn’t going to attempt the quintessence manipulating again is he?” Hunk nervously asked.

Lance stared at him. “Why not?”

“Lance, you literally just woke up from a coma, and you want to try the same thing as what hurt you in the first place?” Keith said incredulously. 

“I don’t see why not,” Pidge inputted. “As long as he is careful not to hurt himself, this could be an extremely valuable skill to have on Voltron’s side.”

“We thought he wasn’t going to hurt himself the first time, and look what happened!” Keith exclaimed. “Not only does it have a very real possibility of putting a teammate out of action for weeks at a time, having Lance in the infirmary again could jeopardise our ability to form Voltron. Shiro, you can’t agree to this.”

Shiro looked conflicted. “I agree that it’s risky, but utilising this skill on missions could save lives. I think the decision is ultimately up to Lance. If he knows the risks and all of the facts, I trust he’ll make the right decision.”

“No he won’t, because he’s an idiot that thinks of others over himself.” Keith huffed.

“Uh, guys?” Hunk’s small voice floated over. “Lance is glowing blue?”

Every head snapped towards the lanky teen’s direction. He seemed to be in a trance, staring into the pocket of space ahead of him and not blinking his shining eyes. Blue tendrils danced over his skin, but irregularly, sometimes spluttering out or jumping around like static. His hands were shaking as they clutched the surface he was sitting on. For a moment, everyone just gazed at the terrifying yet beautiful sight before them, before Allura sprang into action, grabbing his forearms and scrunching her own eyes shut. Muttering something (most likely a string of filthy Altean curse words, you’d never know she was royalty), both her and Lance were encompassed by a pink aura. This glow pulsated around both of their forms until Allura loosened her grip and exhaled. Lance blinked his eyes and panted heavily.

“What the HECK just happened?!” Pidge screamed. Shiro didn’t even reprimand her (very dirty) language, so he must have been pretty shaken up too.

Allura pulled Lance (who still looked a bit disorientated) into a half-hug to support him, whilst Hunk took the other side. 

Allura inhaled deeply. “Lance’s quintessence fluctuated again. I managed to avoid the coma situation because I got to him in time and knew what was happening. I used my Altean magic to restore the levels to what they should be, since Lance, without proper training, can’t.”

“What does this mean for Lance?” Asked Shiro.

“It means,” she replied, “Lance is going to have to learn how to manipulate his quintessence levels, whether we like it or not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Lance is going to train and his powers are going to develop!
> 
> Be *festive* and drop a kudos or for extra brownie points, a comment!!  
> Crap now I want brownie


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance does some training! Yay!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your nice comments last chapter! I had the goofiest smile on my face whilst reading them, they were all really lovely. I'm glad people are enjoying the fic, sorry that I took so long to upload this, but y'know, school and I was stuck on how to write this for AGES! I have a day off from school today though so I managed to finally finish this chapter :)

Lessons with Allura started the day after his second quintessence ‘incident’. Lance was absolutely buzzing as he ran into the training room. Allura turned to him as he entered.

“Excited?” She laughed at his shining eyes. 

“Allura, you’re teaching me magic. This is the 22nd century space equivalent of Hogwarts. You can bet your quiznack I’m excited!” Lance beamed with a childlike sense of euphoria, bouncing on the heels of his shoes.

“You’re still not using that word- ” Allura shook her head in defeat, then gestured to the middle of the room where two stools stood. They had a simple design, both polished silver, with tall rectangular legs supporting a seat which appeared to consist of some sort of translucent jelly. “Let’s sit.”

They crossed the room to sit opposite each other, an arms width apart. Lance rubbed the back of his neck.

“So… what now?” He asked.

The princess smiled. “What do you want to be able to do with your powers? In the long term, as you know, I predict that your abilities will not be limited to just one facet, but we should choose a primary objective. A shield, a weapon, a memory bank, a storage system, maybe even a way of communication…” She mused, lost in thought.

Lance frowned with concentration. What did he want to make? Sucking on his tongue, he thought of what he wanted to do. What the war was for. He thought about the Galra and all the innocents they enslaved. How he didn’t want to be like that. How he wanted to save people, not devastate. How he wanted to protect, even if it meant throwing his body in front of a bomb or his lion before a cannon. And his mind was made up.

“A shield.” He spoke aloud. “I want to make a shield.”

Allura looked up at him. “Are you sure? A weapon such as- ”

“I’m sure.” His voice was firm. He knew his decision was probably naïve. This was a war and he didn’t want to kill.

…But he really didn’t. He wasn’t a violent person. He was a normal teenager, just a boy from Cuba, ripped from the comfort of familiarity by the lions and aliens and everything that seemed so bizarre. He didn’t want to hide behind a scope, peering at living creatures and viewing them as a target, leaving him feeling so detached from the violence and the bullet he’d just sent through the Galra’s head. He didn’t want to slash and stab and shoot his way to victory. Not if he could help it. 

He didn’t want to kill.

“Okay.” Allura conceded. “A shield. First you need to materialise your quintessence without going too far like last time.”

“How do I do that?”

Her expression turned guilty. “I’m… not quite sure yet.”

Lance stared at her. “What.” He deadpanned. 

“Yet!” She pouted indignantly, fluffy hair bouncing off her shoulders as she crossed her arms, however her grumpy expression softened slightly when she noted that Lance’s annoyance was just for show. 

“So what are we going to do, then?” Lance asked.

“Try doing the same as last time. You mentioned grabbing or balling up the quintessence inside of you, correct? You should replicate that motion again but attempting to grab less quintessence.”

“Wow.” Lance said sarcastically. He mimicked her voice, his own growing pitchy and gaining a peculiar accent (the inspiration, of course, from when he used to mimic the accent of Peppa Pig for his younger cousins), “Do the coma thing again, Lonce, just a bit less this time. What could go wrong?”

“I’m right here in case anything goes wrong,” she assured him. “And of course, you don’t have to do it, but then you would regularly pa- ”

“I’ll do it,” he interrupted her. He would. This was for the team. This was for Voltron…

He could do this.

“Okay,” Allura whispered. She held out her arms toward him. “Put your palms on mine.”

He did.

“Close your eyes, breathe, and imagine pulling the your quintessence to the surface. Do not pull too much.”

He closed his eyes, slowly inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth. He envisioned a small, dimly-lit room, and in the centre his quintessence, the raw power held inside of him. He longed to grab it all, become omnipotent with his newfound source of energy, but stopped himself. 

“Do not pull too much…” It made him jump. The memory of Allura’s voice echoed loudly, extending on and on, shaking the pulsating bundle of quintessence before him.

“DO NOT PULL TOO MUCH.” He yelled in pain as this voice didn’t seem to stop, echoing off the walls of this imaginary chamber but with no foreseeable end, each echo as equal in volume as the last. 

The walls shook, changing the lighting of the room every second. Before his eyes flashed a blinding, shining blue and murky gloom, leaving him disorientated. 

Lance just wanted it to stop. He took a pinch of quintessence from the outskirts of the immense mass and raced to bring it to the surface. He could see the edge of reality approaching closer and closer, bright blue still flashing down below, and he leapt towards the line. He felt the difference wash over him and was suddenly immersed in an imperturbable tranquillity. There was a flat wash of pale blue as far as the eye could see in this new environment – yet he could tell that he was back in ‘real-life’. His breaths grew quicker. He couldn’t hear them. There was nothing but silence.

“A- Allura?” His voice broke the quietness. He almost wished it hadn’t; it was shaky, weak and frightened.

“Allura!?” He sounded stronger now, but no less panicked. 

Something gripped his forearm and he yelped and attempted to twist away, but whatever held it was strong. 

“Lance.” Allura’s silhouette gradually put itself together in his vision. “I’m here. You’re in the training room.”

“What? No I’m- ” As Allura’s figure materialised, so did his environment, and he realised that he was in the training room, on that strange stool that he had been on before he’d ‘left’. “Oh.”

Things still weren’t quite right though. The room was awash with faint blue and every sound was a bit louder than usual. Wait… 

He looked around, and noticed the quintessence languidly floating about his body. 

“I did it?” He could hardly believe it. 

“You did it!” Allura cheered, throwing her hands in the air. “Lance, this is amazing! You’ve manipulated quintessence whilst keeping it under control. This would take decaphoebs for the average Altean to manage, and under strict conditions too. This is astounding progress!”

Lance’s tongue felt heavy, and his head slightly fuzzy. “That’s… cool. How do I make a shield?”

“Oh, yes,” Allura said. “You have successfully gathered quintessence in a physical form. You should be able to touch it and manipulate this.”

Lance reached out his finger and poked it, reflexively recoiling when it moved under his touch. “Woah.” He gasped. He gathered it all up in his hands and looked at Allura. “This is amazing!!” 

She beamed at him, hands balled into fists from barely-contained excitement. “I honestly believe you could form anything at this point, but we should focus on a shield first. Let your quintessence float before you,” (he did) “and try to stretch it into a shield. You can use hand gestures but try to shape it mentally rather than physically – if you can use only your will to shape it, you’ll be a lot less confined in combat.”

Lance focused on the energy in front of him. Without touching it, he extended his hands, palms facing away from him. His forearms lay horizontally on top of each other, elbows bent at a ninety-degree angle. Then, he moved his arms apart, one upwards and one downwards to create the motion of stretching the quintessence. 

It worked. Floating in front of him was a structure reminiscent of the space-cookies Hunk had attempted to bake once. It was shiny and hard, looked virtually indestructible, and was translucent. A shield. He’d made it.

Allura scrambled off her stool, slipping a bracelet off her arm as she did so. “Lance, I’ll throw this small object toward you. Do you think you could deflect it?”

He nodded. Allura lobbed the bracelet toward him. Using one hand, his fingers spread and palm facing toward it, he brought the shield in front of him. The bracelet echoed off of it with a metal-sounding clang. 

“Yes!” Both of their shouts mingled into one as Allura raced toward him, tackling him in a hug. 

“Woah,” he muttered as his legs buckled under him, suddenly feeling weak. 

She looked at him with worry. “Are you okay? That must have been draining, it’s only your second try after all.”

“I’m fine,” he assured her. “I’m just tired.” Closing his fist, he shut off his quintessence and watched as it floated through his chest and didn’t emerge the other side. His vision returned back to normal, but he slumped forward, gasping with exhaustion as Allura caught him. “Can I… go to... bed?”

“We may have to monitor your quintessence levels again,” she explained apologetically. “But don’t worry, you’ll only be sleeping, not in a coma. You did great today, Lance.”

He nodded sleepily, drifting off as she carried him out of the room, a voice echoing in his head, filling him with warmth.

“You did great today, Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't know if this is crap or not because I had so much trouble writing this! My words wouldn't do the thing I wanted them to do and honestly it was a disaster lmao. I hope you enjoyed it anyway :)   
> probably some bamf!Lance in combat next chapter, also he really doesn't want to hurt people with what is effectively his soul... let's see how that goes ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Group training session! Yay! This chapter sort of marks the end of the beginning of the story, so after this we'll start to get into the 'meaty' bit, if you will ;D
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading!

Coran walked out of the control room after discussing Lance’s latest training success with Allura, a spring in his step and a bounce to his moustache. He strolled toward the dining hall where the paladins (minus Lance) were gathering to have breakfast, a certain joviality, however, prominently lacking. All heads turned to him as he greeted them. 

“Where’s Lance?” Hunk asked anxiously.

“In the med bay,” Coran answered, then held his hands up when he was bombarded with frantic questions of concern. “He’s as fit as a glaznark! Just a little worn out is all! As you know, last night he had a training session with Allura. He passed out at the end and is only in the infirmary so we can assess any changes to his quintessence or physical state.”

“Did the session go well?” Keith inquired.

“Let’s see if Lance can answer that himself!”

Pidge’s eyes widened, “We can see him now?”

Coran grinned. “Lance should be waking up in the next varga. Let us go and see if our boy is okay!”

-

And that’s how they ended up in the med bay, Allura, Coran and Shiro squashed onto the bed opposite Lance, and Keith, Hunk and Pidge sitting on the floor, all of them eating their bowls of food goo and waiting for Lance to wake up. 

About thirty dobashes had passed when Lance groaned softly. The paladins, who had finished their breakfasts by now and where fighting over the correct way to pronounce ‘milk’, all hurriedly gathered round his bed as he blinked his eyes in confusion. Lance turned his head to see all of their faces staring at him, eyes wide and mouths agape.

“Woah, guys, I know I’m popular but this is overboard.” He joked as he eased himself into a sitting position, grinning at their groans and Keith’s mutter of “Classic Lance.”

“Hey!” He protested. “Shouldn’t you be more worried about me? I’ve been asleep all night, after all.”

Pidge punched him playfully in the arm. “You were in a coma a few days ago, idiot. We have the right to be worried.”

“Not anymore!” Lance grinned. “Yours truly can defend himself now, you know, manipulating quintessence and all that.”

The team made noises of delight and amazement. “You can do it now?” Gasped Hunk, whilst Keith blushed silently and Shiro warmly said “Well done, Lance.”

“You HAVE to show us!” Pidge cried, grasping at his shirt. 

“It’s a bit touch and go, but ok Pidgey, if you insist,” Lance said, swinging his legs over the bed and winking at her. “Lancey Lance has some tricks up his sleeve!”

***

After Lance had eaten and gotten dressed, the team gathered in the training room. It looked the same as yesterday, minus the gelatinous stools in the centre, and Lance gulped as he remembered when he’d sat on them, sight obstructed by the wash of blue and the panic he had felt. A hand descended upon his shoulder. 

“Are you ok, my boy?” Coran asked softly.

Lance nodded confidently. “Yeah, I am. Just… doing the quintessence thing feels weird. But I know that with practise, I’ll be able to do it. I’m ready.”

“You are already doing extremely well, number three. You should be proud of yourself.”

“Gather round!” Allura’s commanding voice cut through their conversation. The two shared smiles – one from gratefulness and one full of pride – and joined the others. 

Allura stood tall in the centre, her voluminous hair tucked neatly into a bun and her purple eyes flashing. They reminded Lance of someone else’s.

“Our training today will be focused around Lance and helping him to control his quintessence. Currently he can form a shield and we know he can at least deflect small objects, so we shall push the limits of this to see what else can be accomplished.” She turned to Lance. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.” He said, balling his hands into fists.

“Alright. Everyone will form a circle around Lance. I’ll give you small units of ammunition to throw at him when I say your name, and Lance will have to deflect them. Everyone clear?”

With noises of confirmation, the team moved to their respective positions. Lance stood in the middle, an equal twelve feet from each of his friends, and closed his eyes as they all watched him. 

The gelid feeling seeped into his bones as he returned to the dull, gloomy room illuminated by the cumulative mass of his quintessence. The urge to grab large amounts of it had somewhat subsided from the last time, so he was much quicker in pinching some wispy tendrils from the outskirts and retreating to the surface, where he knew the substance of imagination ended and real life lay.

Upon crossing the border, he was once again faced by the endless landscape of cloudy blue. There was no depth to the scene before him, just a flat colour of the same hue as far as the eye could see. He knew that beyond his limited vision his team were waiting, watching him, expecting him to produce magic. He couldn’t let them down. 

He imagined the team surrounding him. Coran watching over, Allura and Hunk at his back, Shiro and Pidge at his sides, and Keith directly in front of him. 

He couldn’t let them down.

He could sense a red aura in front of him. Hyper focusing, he envisioned Keith standing there, gazing at him with anticipation. Suddenly, the real Keith materialised in his vision, and the rest of the blue melted away to reveal the training room as he’d left it, albeit with his ‘quintessence vision’.

Lance spun to face Allura and nodded decisively. She nodded back. Taking a deep breath, he spread his floating quintessence out and contorted it into a shield. He could feel Pidge resisting the urge to scream; this newfound source of power fascinated her to the point of unbridled euphoria. 

Once that was done, he used one hand to move it so it was positioned in front of him.

“Are you ready?” Allura sliced through the silence that had befallen the scene, mostly due to amazement from his teammates.

“Yeah,” he answered. He smirked, “Hit me.”

She lobbed a pole toward him like a javelin, only the tip was blunt. He easily deflected it, sending it spinning off towards her, skimming the ground.

“Good.” She praised. “Shiro!”

Shiro sent a heavy sphere flying his way, toward his left shoulder. He sidestepped, admiring the way particles of quintessence seemed to trail from his movements, and manipulated the shape of his shield so that it more resembled a giant bowl. He caught the ball inside it and expertly sent it flying back to Shiro’s chest, who only just caught it in time.

And so it continued. Allura judged that the current session was too easy for him and in need of a challenge – accompanied by an exasperated but fond sigh and a chuckle of “You shouldn’t be able to show off either, this is the hardest session I’ve ever assigned.”

Lance was loving it. He had a new skill all his own, and his inner child was squealing. He bet he looked so badass right now. 

For the next exercise, a paladin at random had to charge at him. Lance was to block all of their attacks, until the next paladin charged at him and it would start over again.

“We would normally try this on training bots first, but your progress is astounding and I truly believe that you are ready for this,” Allura said.

“However you must tell us if you’re tired, Lance.” Shiro sounded concerned. “This is a hard exercise and you can take a break or stop whenever you like.”

Lance nodded. His head only felt slightly fuzzy – he could handle a few more battles. As he thought this, Pidge came sprinting towards him. He separated the shield into six smaller disks, attaching them to his hands, elbows and feet and countered her jabs and swipes. She opted out to make way for Shiro, who attacked rapid and powerful. 

 

It was weird fighting a person whilst in this state. He could hear Shiro’s elevated heart rate and quick breathing pounding in his head, and the creaking of his joints as he moved. The buzz of his Galran arm grated in his ears, even as Shiro primarily attacked with his human one.  
Lance was flagging when Shiro stepped out and Hunk ran forward. His large movements were easier to defend against and Lance was growing in confidence once more when a sharp pain in his head made his shields disappear. The punch Hunk had thrown to his head, which was powerful but would’ve been easily deflected, still travelled through the air as Lance yelled in pain and lightning danced on his skin. Hunk’s fist connected with Lance’s exposed head, and he flew backwards to land heavily on his back.

Cries of his name echoed around the room as they all rushed towards him. Shiro reached him first, and lightly tapped his cheek whilst saying, as calmly as possible, “Lance? Lance? Answer me, buddy.”

Allura tried to grab his arm to dispel the blue spikes of energy like before. She cried out when touching his skin resulted in a shock, spasms travelling up her arm. “I can’t heal him!” She yelled. “His quintessence levels are too high!”

“What do we do then?!” Keith’s voice cracked. 

Allura looked at Lance. His expression was contorted in pain as zigzags of energy ran through his body. He was suffering, his hair plastered to his head with sweat and his limbs pinned to the ground by this force, locked in place and unable to move. “He has to do it himself.” She whispered.

“That’s impossible!” Pidge shouted. “Have you seen the state he’s in?”

Allura ignored her. She placed her hands either side of his temples, disregarding the pain, and muttered “You must reduce your quintessence levels, Lance. They must go down.”

“YOU MUST”

 

Lance was in the room with his quintessence – thoroughly freaking out, he might add. One second he was training with Hunk, raising his shields to block a punch, and the next pain took over everything, and he only had time to register his body hitting the floor before he was here again. But the room had never been like this before. Cracks in the walls were snaking their way across the ceiling, sending chunks of whatever it was crumbling down. His body was still wracked with pain, and he couldn’t keep his balance as the whole room shook, like some kid had picked up a box and wondered what was inside. What did he do? He guessed his quintessence levels had fluctuated again; the ball of quintessence was considerably larger than last time and was pulsing more aggressively. How did he stop it?

An echoey voice snapped him out of his musings. Allura. 

“You must.”

He must what? That told him nothing! He must stay still? He must touch the quintessence? He must-

“-go down”

The infuriating phrase echoed endlessly. Go down? Go down where? Lance started to panic. What did he have to do? What if he stayed here forever, his consciousness residing in his quintessence, his material body existing as an empty shell? A corpse?

“-quintessence levels… Lance – reduce – you must…”

He must… reduce his quintessence levels? He listened as the pieced-together yet distorted information circled the chamber. Yes…

Uhh, how did he do that? He’d only ever taken quintessence from the very edge of the mass. How could he reduce it?

Well, he’d condensed the shield by moving it with his hands. Lance was confident that would work on this – only if this wasn’t a much larger scale. Another chunk of ceiling thudded down next to him. This was his best bet. 

Crawling closer to the quintessence, he unsteadily got to his feet, swaying as he outstretched his arms as if to embrace the raw power before him. Grasping the wispy sides, he took a deep breath, stared into the blue of his soul, and pulled them together as hard as he could. 

He probably screamed. A lot. He couldn’t remember; the colour was so blinding and the pain so numbing that all he could do was tense his muscles and hope for the best. Fireworks exploded behind his eyes as he forced the bonds holding his quintessence together to contract, reducing the size of the ball of energy. He could feel it – this quintessence was a part of him and it felt like he was meddling with something that ought not to be meddled with. He could feel his consciousness being ripped from the quintessence room, something he had no problem with. Lance just wanted this to be over and feel safe with his friends. 

He left the dark room, which was still damaged and distressed by the mental earthquake, and retreated back to consciousness. Squinting his eyes, he saw his team surrounding him, Keith near his head, Pidge and Shiro at his sides, and Hunk and Allura near his feet. He smiled at them weakly as they all noticed his open eyes. 

As his team stirred and moved around him, brimming with happiness at his return, he felt safe. Despite his aching body, he was safe.

For now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I took so long to update! I'm working on some other fics, plus I have a bunch of revision for all my subjects (that I'm supposed to be doing now, shhh). Anyway, I'm hoping the next chapter will be out a bit quicker? Yay
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you enjoyed chapter 6, I love Coran so much and wanted to squeeze a bit of him in lol. Next chapter the paladins will probably go into battle? A druid might be there?? ;)
> 
>  
> 
> Oh also just a reminder, idk if anyone does, but if you happen to have any constructive criticism or notice anything wrong in my work, please don't hesitate to tell me! I'm looking for ways to improve my writing all the time :)
> 
> Ok... I think that's it. Bye!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance goes on his first mission post-quintessence incident

“Paladins.” Allura sounded unsure. “I’m sensing an unusual presence on the other side of the planet.”

“An unusual presence?” Pidge asked, never halting her fluid fingertips as they flowed along the Galran keyboard. “What does that mean?”

Allura hesitated. “I don’t want to cause any unnecessary alarm, but… it’s almost impossible to read. It almost feels like quintessence, but it can’t be; it’s larger than any I’ve ever sensed.”

“What should we do?” Hunk picked at the stray threads escaping from his gloves.

“We’ve almost collected the data now,” said Shiro. “Pidge?”

She hummed in confirmation. “A few more dobashes.”

“So we wait until that’s done. Then we proceed as planned, all reconvening back at the Green Lion. Pidge and I will be out before the next sentry patrol arrive to investigate the disappearance of the last. How’s your mission going?”

“Smoothly,” Keith answered. 

“Hunk?”

“I’ve planted…”

Lance lost focus of the conversation as Hunk reported his progress. He felt weird. His ears fizzed with faint white noise and his fingers danced at his sides as he wove around the catacombs of the base. 

They were on planet C94, Keith, Hunk and himself stealthily planting explosives on the Galran hub, and Pidge and Shiro collecting data from the control room before they blew this popsicle stand. It was a simple, in-and-out mission: all arrive disguised by the cloaking of the Green Lion, collect the information, bounce and watch the firework show. A mysterious presence wasn’t on the itinerary. 

As a further source of unease, Lance was abstaining from manipulating his own quintessence. From the last training session, they had all witnessed the toll that going overboard had on his body. As they didn’t know exactly where the barrier for ‘going overboard’ stood, they were carefully monitoring him, and he wasn’t allowed to use his powers. Lance could see the logic in it; a positive that emerged from those events was that he now knew how to reduce his quintessence if it all became too much, so there was no urgent need for mastery over his abilities. Also, the fatigue that constantly besmirched his mind wasn’t fun. 

He drummed the fingers of his left hand against his thigh, pressed flush against the wall, holding his breath as a huddle of sentries marched in unison past his position. After ten ticks, he exhaled and rounded the next corner, reaching for an explosive. Lance found his mind, once again, wandering off towards the subject of the quintessence-like aura Allura had sensed. He felt his skin prickle uncomfortably. Quintessence? It couldn’t be-

A hot jolt of electricity flashed through his head, and he yelled out in pain. The explosive in his hand clattered to the floor as he desperately covered his ears, staggering back until his back crashed against the wall. This power was foreign – vengeful, power-hungry, twisted. 

Filtering through the ringing in his ears, he could hear Shiro asking “Lance?”

“I’m fine,” he panted. “I just- I think I know what that ‘unusual presence’ is.”

Allura inhaled sharply. “What is it?”

“It’s- shit!” Lance ducked as a laser raced past his head, close enough for a warmth to linger on the side of his helmet, and sprinted down the hall, the sentries hot on his heels. “Haggar! It’s Haggar!” His bayard materialised in his hands as he stumbled around another corner. “Also, they know we’re here! That may or may not have been my fault!” 

Pidge yelled, harmonising with the cacophony of crashes and bangs that were unquestionably the sounds of a door being broken down. 

“We need to retreat, now!” Shiro barked into the comms, the faint sound of gunfire permeating through the line. “We have the information, make your way back to the Green Lion! We DO NOT want to engage with the witch!”

Lance very much agreed.

He was almost out of the base now, he could see a doorway that spilled warm, scarlet light onto the hallway. At one hundred metres away, Keith emerged from one of the many side passages, followed by enemies of his own. “What the HELL did you do?!” Keith screamed as they both ran for their lives towards the (literal) end of the tunnel. 

“Blame Haggar!” He shrieked back. “I was doing my job!”

He felt a laser hit his back. Luckily, the more-enforced armour in that area took the brunt of the damage but he was still flung forward, the momentum bouncing him across the floor. As he slammed onto the unforgiving metal, another laser crashed into his bicep, this time reaching the skin. He had no time to scream before Keith had slowed his steps to pull him up. “Come on!”

As soon as he had staggered to his feet, Keith collapsed with a shout, clutching his shin. “Keith?!” A laser skimmed Lance’s helmet, leaving spider cracks across his visor. The sentries were rapidly approaching. Keith was down. They were both immobile. Lance couldn’t pick off every stupid robot with his bayard. 

There was only one option.

He felt a familiar gelid feeling coat his body as blue tendrils dispersed from his fingers. The world became more vivid – the gunshots ricocheting off ridges in his skull and the harsh light piercing his eyes. Lance crouched next to Keith, hand laying carefully on his chest, and willed a barrier to form. He had to keep Keith safe.

His quintessence sprawled in an arc over his head, strands melding and interconnecting like a web, until they were both completely protected by a bubble. The translucent surface threw strange, shifting shadows upon the floor as the sentries momentarily halted their attack in the face of this unknown power. They experimentally fired a few shots, which deflected off with a dull, reverberating thud. 

Lance groaned as the impacts shook him, sapping his energy. The robots slowly made their way forwards, attacking the shield as it wavered under the force and Lance swore under his breath.

“Lance…” Keith hissed. “You know you’re not supposed to be doing this.”

“THAT’S what you’re worried about right now, Mullet?” He winced as another three shots were fired in quick succession. “In ten ticks they’ll have broken down the shield, and we’ll be as good as dead.”

“So, we break it down first. On the count of three, you let down the shield and I’ll charge at them.”

Lance stared at him, unimpressed. “Did you forget that your leg is fifty shades of fucked up right now? Or are you really that stupid? We can’t win.”

“Then we’ll go down swinging. Listen, you have your quintessence, right? We’re both pumped up with adrenaline right now. Now is as good a time as any.”

“We’re gonna die,” Lance shook his head. “Sure.”

“One.”

“Two…”

Just as Lance prepared to dissolve the bubble, a large silhouette barrelled in from behind, entering through the door they were attempting to escape through. 

“RUN!” Hunk yelled. “I’ve got you covered!”

With his immense machine gun, Hunk sprayed a barrage of bullets at the sentries, half of them collapsing instantly. Lance waved his hand, the barrier fell, and the three of them sprinted to the door, adrenaline aiding them in ignoring their various injuries. As they dove through the doorway, Lance turned and fired his bayard at the lock pad, sealing the door shut. 

The trio collapsed onto the sandy terrain, gasping for air. “Thanks bro,” Lance weakly held out his hand for a fistbump, which Hunk reciprocated. “You really helped us out there.”

“No problem,” the other wheezed, coughing breathlessly. “Glad I could help.”

Keith struggled to stand up, leaning on the wall of the base. “We can rest later. Haggar is still here.”

At her name, Lance’s stomach dropped. “You’re right, she’s getting closer. We need to get to the Green Lion.”

Luckily, Pidge’s Lion was only parked behind a dune a few hundred metres away, and although Keith could barely walk without assistance and Lance was losing blood, the mini trek through the desert was fairly easy. Their feet dragged and their heads drooped, but within a couple of dobashes they were there. 

Only one thing stood between them and safety.

A wicked cackle was spat from between chapped, purple lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm really sorry I haven't updated in so long, especially with no explanation. I'm going to try to keep myself to a closer schedule. I hope this chapter was worth the wait! x
> 
> hopefully some Haggar pov in the next chapter as well, which I'm looking forward to
> 
> I'm actually fairly happy with this chapter, I've been trying to make the way I use dialogue more natural?? Idk if I did that though lmao
> 
> Constructive criticism (or just thoughts on the chapter) welcome!! Thanks for reading!!


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